Deflate-Gate: More Americans Think Patriots Cheated, Poll Finds

The public has weighed in on Deflate-Gate: A plurality of Americans think the Patriots cheated.

A survey by Public Policy Polling found that 41 percent of Americans think the Patriots cheated by underinflating footballs for the AFC championship game — compared with 27 who think they did not.

Among self-described NFL fans, the spread was bigger — 50 percent labeled the team cheaters, compared with 28 percent who went the other way. Republicans were closely split, while Democrats came down 2-to-1 for cheating.

The polling company also found that Americans are rooting for the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX, 36 percent to 29 percent. And even if they did cheat, the Patriots still come in behind the Dallas Cowboys for the title of most hated team.

The poll surveyed 612 registered voters Thursday through Sunday. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.